spectre6000
Samba Member
Joined: April 19, 2009
Posts: 2014
Location: Broomfield, CO
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 Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:27 am Post subject: Clean 3-Point Seat Belt Install (By Request) |
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Long long ago, about this time last summer, in a driveway about 50 feet from where I'm typing now... I got a 3-point retractable seat belt kit off the internet (don't remember where, it was the one that looked most appropriate to the bus without sacrificing function) and installed it in my bus. I drilled holes in the spare tire well, the seat pedestal, and the bulkhead for the included bolts, fender washers, and nuts (the easy part).
Then I decided where I wanted to place the third point (high enough to not break collar bones in the event of a wreck, but low enough to not be uncomfortable for the two fairly short occupants that will be frequenting its seats), and drilled a hole there.
Then I took a piece of pretty thick (1/8" as I recall) steel stock, drilled a bolt sized hole in the center of the piece I was about to cut, cut it to the approximate thickness of the B-pillar by 3 inches or so, and welded a nut to the hole to keep it stationary.
Then I took my Dremel with a cutoff wheel and cut three lines just slightly larger than the plate I had just made:
-Two were on the inwards facing side going from almost the front corner all the way to the back corner and into the rear facing side just an 1/8" or so.
-The third was on the rear facing side connecting the other two.
This all served to create a flap that could be pried back wide enough (but not too wide or it would mess up the paint or create a crease in the metal; which I pretty much ended up doing anyway) to get the plate in there.
From there, I took the plate back out (I was sort of making it up as I went along), and held my flap still enough to drill a few holes to use for making spot welds.
Then I put the plate back in, tried to put a bolt in to line it up and hold it in place, dropped the plate down the B-pillar, swore, swore some more for good measure, called Allie out to help me figure out how to get the plate back out of there, tried to fish it out with a magnet on a string, failed miserably, tried again with a magnet on an unbent hanger, failed again but managed to find some rust flakes, then proceeded to make another plate just like the first.
Then I SUCCESSFULLY bolted the plate to the B-pillar flap I had made, and spot welded the plate to the flap (MIG plug weld style).
Finally I cleaned up the paint off the edges of the flap a little, and welded the flap back down. My welding skills weren't the greatest, so I then ground down the crappy welds until they were more or less flush, but depressed a little so I could get filler in there later on down the road.
Krylon paint. Dry. Install the hardware. Done.
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Jason Hopper
-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me |
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